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Chinese Character/Word:

Definition(s) for: 巧妇难为无米之炊

Hanzi Pinyin Definition(s)
巧妇难为无米之炊 qiǎo fù nán wéi wú mǐ zhī chuī - The cleverest housewife cannot cook without rice (idiom); You won't get anywhere without equipment.

List Ranking:

Where rank 1 is most common, and higher numbers are less common.

HSK 2 Level (2012) HSK 3 Band (2022) SUBTLEX-CH BeijingUni Global BeijingUni Weibo
- - - 72,745 72,417

Individual Character Breakdown:

Simp Pinyin Eng
qiǎo- opportunely
- coincidentally
- as it happens
- skillful
- timely
- woman
- old variant of 婦|妇[fu4]
nán- difficult (to...)
- problem
- difficulty
- difficult
- not good
nàn- disaster
- distress
- to scold
wéi- as (in the capacity of)
- to take sth as
- to act as
- to serve as
- to behave as
- to become
- to be
- to do
- by (in the passive voice)
wèi- because of
- for
- to
wéi- variant of 為|为[wei2]
wèi- variant of 為|为[wei4]
- used in 南無|南无[na1mo2]
- not to have
- no
- none
- not
- to lack
- un-
- -less
- surname Mi
- uncooked rice
- meter (unit of length)
- (slang) Chinese yuan
zhī- (possessive particle, literary equivalent of 的[de5])
- him
- her
- it
chuī- to cook food

Other Words Containing 巧妇难为无米之炊

Sorted by the 'SUBTLEX-CH' rank because that seems like the most reliable. Words without a SUBTLEX-CH rank are ignored for being too rare.

Word HSK 2 Level (2012) HSK 3 Band (2022) SUBTLEX-CH BeijingUni Global BeijingUni Weibo